The Red Shoes (2005) blends psychological horror with the New Korean Cinema wave’s cinematic style. Focusing on a cursed pair of shoes and a woman’s unraveling mind, the film explores young adult horror, striking visual contrasts, and the rise of Korean horror internationally, cementing its status as a modern classic of the genre. [Read More]
Category: Movie & TV features (page 2)
Director Park Hong-min interview: “we were all trying to express our loneliness”
Director Park Hong-min discusses A Fish and Alone, tracing their roots in loneliness, memory, and self-analysis. He addresses the film education system in Korea and the struggles of truly independent filmmaking, and talks about casting choices, shamanism, long takes, handmade 3D and a commitment to personal questions over commercial formulas.Director Park Hong-min discusses A Fish and Alone, tracing their roots in loneliness, memory, and self-analysis. He addresses the film education system in Korea and the struggles of truly independent filmmaking, and talks about casting choices, shamanism, long takes, handmade 3D and a commitment to personal questions over commercial formulas. [Read More]
Rituals, Reflections, and 3D: Director Park Hong-min on A Fish
Director Park Hong-min discusses the shamanistic inspirations behind his debut film, A Fish. He explains his unconventional use of 3D to create a distorted reality, the symbolic role of mirrors and doppelgängers, and the influence of Jindo’s healing rituals. Park also details his collaborative approach to the film’s restrained, atmospheric sound design. [Read More]
Lee Jang-ho interview: censorship, sexuality and resistance in Korean cinema
Lee Jang-ho discusses state censorship from the colonial era through the 1990s, the enforced transformation of Declaration of Idiot, and his turn to sexuality as a tool of anti-establishment expression in the 1980s. He reflects on Shin Sang-ok’s abduction, North Korean filmmaking, and argues that contemporary Korea still harshly penalises social critique. [Read More]
Actor Baek Yoon-sik interview: career flow, creative choice, defining roles
Actor Baek Yoon-sik reflects on moving between theatre, television, and cinema, returning to film with Save the Green Planet. He discusses choosing challenging roles, respecting scripts, limited improvisation, and working on politically and socially charged films (such as The President’s Last Bang), framing acting as creative labour shaped by history, collaboration, and personal judgment. [Read More]
Jung Woo-sung and Kim Sung-soo interview: “Hyung, this is really tough!”
Actor Jung Woo-sung and director Kim Sung-soo discuss Asura: The City of Madness, focusing on its fictional setting, extreme characters, and themes of power, corruption, and moral collapse. They reflect on their long collaboration, challenging performances, shifting career choices, and the responsibility of senior artists to support new filmmakers. [Read More]
Park Chan-wook talks about Handmaiden, octopuses and more
Park Chan-wook discusses adapting Fingersmith to colonial Korea, adding racial and class barriers, collaborating with Jung Seo-kyung and filming intimate scenes. He reflects on lessons from Stoker, violence and symbolism, octopus imagery, working with his brother on Night Fishing, shamanistic themes, adaptation processes and making films for future Korean audiences. [Read More]
Hyeon Nam-seop’s Saving My Hubby: female strength, comedy and the New Korean Cinema Wave
Saving My Hubby (2002) follows Geum-sun as she navigates parenthood, marriage, and a frantic night rescuing her husband. Blending madcap comedy with New Korean Cinema trends, the film highlights modern female strength, role reversals, and the rise of light-hearted, relatable stories reflecting young adults’ evolving attitudes toward family and relationships. [Read More]
Kwon Chil-in’s Singles: modern womanhood and the rise of New Korean Cinema comedy
Paul Quinn introduces Kwon Chil-in’s Singles, positioning it as a defining New Korean Cinema comedy, reflecting shifting attitudes to love, sex and independence. Through its modern female characters, role reversals and humour, the film marks a break from decades of punitive depictions of women and celebrates changing social values in early-2000s Korea. [Read More]
Festival Film Review: Ode to My Father
The time is the present. Yoon Deok-su, a grandfather living in Busan but born in South Hamgyong province in North Korea, looks back at his life of hardship which has coincided exactly with the life of the Republic of Korea. Surrounded by his grandchildren, he has managed to raise his family from nothing to relative prosperity, … [Read More]
Ryoo Seung-wan interview: Veteran, action cinema and imagined justice
Director Ryoo Seung-wan discusses Veteran as a fantasy of justice where power can be defeated, his shift toward humour, casting Hwang Jung-min and Yoo Ah-in, and plans for sequels. He reflects on audience appeal, realistic action choreography, and his view of action as the core language of cinema. [Read More]
Festival Film Review: Ryoo Seung-wan’s Veteran
It was the first screening in the the trial “0th” iteration of the London East Asia Film Festival, but this really didn’t feel like a new film festival – more a continuation of past ones. We were opening in a venue that felt familiar, a lot of the faces front of house and on stage … [Read More]
Korea Joa Project – a visit to the Korean Film Archive
Hangul Celluloid’s Paul Quinn enjoys a visit to the Korean Film Archive (KOFA) in Seoul, exploring its museum, library, and film vault. Highlights include exhibits on Korean cinema history, women in film, restoration techniques, props, and interactive displays, emphasizing KOFA’s role in preserving, promoting, and sharing Korean films with global audiences. [Read More]
Bae Doo-na interview: “I think I’m good at acting silently”
Bae Doo-na discusses A Girl at My Door as a critique of social prejudice, isolation, and marginalisation. She reflects on supporting challenging Korean films, choosing directors over scale, working across Korean and international cinema, her preference for expressive, non-verbal acting, and formative projects from Barking Dogs Never Bite to Sense8. [Read More]
Kwak Kyung-taek quizzed at the first LKFF on Typhoon, filming in Russia and more
Director Kwak Kyung-taek discusses the personal and political inspiration behind Typhoon, sharing stories of filming in Thailand and Russia, near-misses with natural disasters, and the challenges of producing one of Korea’s most expensive films. He also reflects on audience reactions, international perspectives, and his plans for future projects beyond big-budget action cinema. [Read More]
2015 Travel Diary day 11: a visit to Studio MWP
A behind-the-scenes glimpse inside Studio Meditation with a Pencil, home of Green Days and This Road Called Life. Director Ahn Jae-huun shares insights on upcoming projects, including A Thousand Years Together and short story adaptations Shower and The Shaman Sorceress, while visitors discover the charming, pencil-filled world where Korean animation comes to life. [Read More]